Agree with Phat. It was VER's race to lose. Why try to hold up a back marker on faster tyres just for @#$%& and giggles? Here you see the difference. It's the sort of thing that all young drivers do. HAM got into scrapes like that but not any more. Yes, he had a few close ones in quali but the difference is he was trying to get out of the way and it went wrong.

I'm afraid VER has only himself to blame for this. I hope he can reflect on it and learn. OCO going past him would have made zero difference to his race. Why didn't his team tell him?

It was a completely pointless collision which cost him the win. It doesn't matter who the other driver was. He got into a scrap he didn't need to be in.

On the race as a whole, the fact that HAM dragged that thing around on mostly the wrong tyres at all times and won shows just how good he is.

What's exciting is that next year we'll also have LEC in the Fiat and maybe Honda will add some pace to the RBR. COuld be a classic.

It was Ocon who showed how dumb he really is. Who in their right mind would fight to unlap himself from A RED BULL who is leading the race especially as he was behind just after the first turn. It was so frigging dumb its not even funny - he would be overtaken on the straight or in the next few corners anyways and would lose out more time fighting with Verstappen in A RED BULL which was quicker than both Ferraris and Mercedes today.
Just sheer stupidity from Ocon who even in T2 was half of a car behind Verstappen.
He knew Max's intentions very well (you know - a leader of a fkn race!) after the first turn.
Seems that in fights for positions Ocon can be just as dumb as Magnussen is.

I think that was needed for Max to learn and take lower risks.
Think of it if he was racing for the title & made a risk with a 14th-15th backmarker who tries to unlap himself.
That's not what a Hamilton or Alonso does.

Charlie Whiting: "He's absolutely allowed to un-lap himself," he said. "That's clear, it's happened many times in the past.

"However, you would expect it to be done safely," he continued. "More to the point it should be done cleanly and absolutely without fighting.

"He shouldn't be fighting to get past," he said of Ocon. "If he's got the pace then normally one would expect Red Bull to say 'Ocon's got the pace, just let him through', that sort of thing. But it seemed that he just went for it and it was a bit unfortunate that he decided to fight for it which was wholly unacceptable."

JV: “Ocon is an embarrassment,” he told Motorsport.com. “That was ridiculous. And the worst bit is everyone has seen what happened, and on the radio not even a ‘sorry guys, I was wrong.’ It’s good to accept you’re wrong.

“You can unlap yourself, but do it properly. You’re not allowed to put the leader at risk at all. You don’t do something that loses time for the other driver, and is taking a risk.

"Overtaking on the straight and you’re in front is fine. But that looked like it was a battle for the lead.

“But also it shows he has no racecraft, zero racecraft whatsoever. All the incidents in the last two years where maybe it’s his fault, maybe it’s not, you can kind of think that maybe he was in the wrong, because he hasn’t read the race properly.

It's not about OCO though is it? It's about VER. He had no need to get into a tangle. Why didn't his team tell him to back off? What was he playing at? OCO was clearly faster and actually would possibly have towed VER along with DRS for a few laps.

Ozzy OsboneIt's not about OCO though is it? It's about VER. He had no need to get into a tangle. Why didn't his team tell him to back off? What was he playing at? OCO was clearly faster and actually would possibly have towed VER along with DRS for a few laps.

Hold on:
- A backmarker is allowed to unlap himself
- A backmarker is not allowed to battle with cars lapping him

- Ocon was a lapped backmarker, although faster on track at the time of the incident
- Ocon battled Verstappen for position out of turn 1 into turn 2

And you're on about Verstappen being an idiot?

For sure he (Verstappen) will learn from this and I doubt he'll let it happen again, but this one is purely on Ocon. That was 100% brainfart by Ocon.

Note that Verstappen should really take some anger management training over the winter so that he can restrain himself a little more in future.

The fact that Hamilton commented Verstappen should have let Ocon go, is all about driver and life experience. He's got more than 10 years on Verstappen, Hamilton wasn't without his own "PR-Stunts" back in the day........ Example LINK

How was Ocon faster? Even with fresher tyres he would be a lot slower than VER who had very good pace at that time. Ocon is saying that he was so fast because he overtook oh so many cars in the same spot and yes he did oovertake some cars before but they were 2 Willaims' so thats not a real measure of his speed in that stint.

As a race leader Max was in front after T1 already, this fight from Ocon was always gonna be bad for Ocon and his team because he would be overtaken again very quickly and likely would be losing time this way.
How can some backmarker in a slower car even think about unlapping himself in a direct fight with a race leader (and a Verstappen who isnt some @#$%& on the track) in these corners? If he was so fast he should have done that after T2 on the straight because that would be a proper way to do it as Charlie said.

@Ihme:
You're right. Had Ocon made the pass, Verstappen wouldh have had DRS on him the next straight. The guy was like 2 or 3 tenths a seconds faster per lap in the previous laps. That performance advantage was only going to be very temporary.

Ozzy OsboneIt's not about OCO though is it? It's about VER. He had no need to get into a tangle. Why didn't his team tell him to back off? What was he playing at? OCO was clearly faster and actually would possibly have towed VER along with DRS for a few laps.

Ocon showd remarkable restraint. JPM would have kicked, Verstappen's little white @#$%& up into the trees.

Ozzy OsboneIt's not about OCO though is it? It's about VER. He had no need to get into a tangle. Why didn't his team tell him to back off? What was he playing at? OCO was clearly faster and actually would possibly have towed VER along with DRS for a few laps.

Ocon showd remarkable restraint. JPM would have kicked, Verstappen's little white @#$%& up into the trees.

He showed the whole world that he has na balls at all. A perfect future Bottas replacement without a doubt.

Ozzy OsboneIt's not about OCO though is it? It's about VER. He had no need to get into a tangle. Why didn't his team tell him to back off? What was he playing at? OCO was clearly faster and actually would possibly have towed VER along with DRS for a few laps.

Ocon showd remarkable restraint. JPM would have kicked, Verstappen's little white @#$%& up into the trees.

He showed the whole world that he has na balls at all. A perfect future Bottas replacement without a doubt.

A backmarker challenging the gifted one showed he had balls. Come one dude, you're suggesting KUB would let Ver slap him around.

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